Officials from the St. Louis County Auditor's Office have finished recounting about 86,000 ballots cast for Minnesota governor, and only two other counties statewide are still counting.
The recount ended in Duluth just after 10 a.m. Thursday, the fourth day of recounting, said Don Dicklich, county auditor, and finished with no surprises and little change from the Nov. 2 count.
DFLer Mark Dayton ended with 52,337 votes -- up 25 from Nov. 2. Republican Tom Emmer ended with 24,188 -- up 1 from election night.
There were only 26 challenges of voter intent on ballots, 16 by the Emmer camp and 10 by Dayton's team.
"It went very smoothly," Dicklich said, adding that there were few frivolous challenges and little rancor between the Dayton and Emmer officials monitoring the recount. "We never had that here. Everyone was very professional."
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By contrast, in the Twin Cities, Emmer officials made dozens of challenges deemed frivolous by DFLers and county officials. The State Canvassing Board will meet todayto discuss those challenges.
The county results are now sent to the Secretary of State's Office, along with incident reports on each occasion where the vote total changed from Nov. 2. Most of the differences in St. Louis County appear to be a vote or two in rural precincts where ballots are counted by hand on election night.
Most counties had already finished recounting the more than 2.1 million ballots statewide, with only the most populous -- St. Louis, Hennepin, Anoka and Ramsey -- still counting on Thursday. Anoka also finished on Thursday and Hennepin and Ramsey are expected to finish today, said John Aiken, spokesman for the Secretary of State's Office.
"It went pretty well (Thursday) from what I've heard,'' Aiken said.
The State Canvassing Board will meet again next week to review the new vote totals and settle any ballots still in question. The board is expected to finish its work and certify a victor by Dec. 14.
Dayton held a roughly 8,800-vote lead after Nov. 2, which was within the half-percentage-point margin for a mandatory recall. So far, the total has changed by fewer than 100 votes either way -- not nearly enough to swing the election toward Emmer.
The Minnesota Supreme Court already has ruled against the Emmer camp on several legal issues and procedures, a ruling that would make it hard for Emmer to challenge the Canvassing Board's decision later this month. Republican officials, however, say they have not ruled out legal challenges of the recount results.
